Match sprint is so much more than a race

L.V. Velodrome

August 07, 2004|By Steve Moore Of The Morning Call

Imagine if Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield sat down to play a little chess.

Aside from the ear-gnawing and trash talk, that wouldn't be a normal game of chess. Picture for a minute that after all the strategy and thinking, the winner was decided in a 30-second, bare-knuckled brawl.

Now you might have an idea of how things worked on Friday in the women's Mid-Atlantic Sprint Championship at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome.

"I think the match sprint takes a lot of patience, to just wait, and wait and wait in the back," said Becky Conzelman, who came from the back to defeat Sarah Uhl in the night's final head-to-head race. "And if you want the back, you're waiting for that person to make the first move, then you just have to follow them and take a run at them."

After individual time trials determine seeding for the tournament, the riders are paired off, with the top qualifier going head-to-head against the slowest qualifier in a two-lap sprint. The strategy comes in the first lap, as each rider positions her pawns by crawling around the first few turns, sometimes slowing almost to a stop in an attempt to allow the other rider to take the lead. Finally, when all the mental moves have been used up, it becomes an all-out fistfight as the riders fly toward the finish line.

After two rounds of head-to-head heats eliminated six of the eight riders, the only riders left standing were Conzelman and Uhl. Now while most match sprints begin with the riders drawing numbered golf balls to determine their starting position (starting in back is preferred), Uhl and Conzelman had a different idea. The skipped the chess and the fistfight, opting instead for something between "rock, paper, scissors" and "odds or evens."

They armwrestled for it on the medal podium.

"We did that because Becky and I believe that we're here to entertain the crowd and have a good time and put on a show," said Uhl, who lost the armwrestling match and had to start in the No. 1 position. "That's what's going to bring people out, and we race because people come out. And that's our way to keep it light and fun and exciting."

Disappointed by having to take the lead (yes, cycling is different), Uhl decided her only hope was to speed up the pace even in the usually slow first lap. Uhl kept the lead down the backstretch of the last lap, but most people knew it was only a matter of time before Conzelman would take off. And take off she did coming into turn four, as Conzelman cruised to the top prize.

"Sarah's a good tactician, and we've gone back and forth in match sprinting," Conzelman said. "The armwrestle helped, so I could draw number two position. It was definitely a smart move for her to take off like that, but I wasn't surprised."

Uhl and Conzelman did not limit their battle to the sprint championship. Earlier in the evening, Conzelman finished just ahead of Kimmet and Uhl in the three-mile final while Uhl returned the favor in the unknown distance race, beating out Conzelman and Graciela Martinez.

On the men's side, Jame Carney entered the night with a commanding lead in the Rider of the Year race and left the track the same way. The four-time Rider of the Year champ beat out Bobby Lea in the one-kilometer final and the men's miss-and-out, and ended the night by finishing the hat trick with a dominating 12-point win in the 60-lap points race.